The first "live pictures" in Croatia were shown on October 8, 1896, just ten months after the art of cinema was born in Paris. The venue was a small theater hall in the building that is now home to the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. For generations, within these walls, young Croatians learned the skills needed to become actors, directors and cinematographers on the short list of modern Central European masters.

Since the 1960s, Croatian cinema has combined a haunting, often savagely bleak outcry against political and personal repression with humor, lyricism and a tenderness born of constant conflict and adversity. However, it was little known before late 2000, when the American Cinematheque and CAMEO presented “Wednesdays in Croatia,” the first comprehensive overview of Croatian cinema ever mounted on the West Coast.